So, where’ve I been at?

I’ve been working. And working. And working. And designing and architecting and wireframing and learning about design and thinking about user problems and dreaming about user problems and wireframing and designing and learning – oh God the learning – my brain has melted out my ears a dozen times already.

This results in a few things:

1. I am exhausted.
2. I want to learn even more.
3. I want to get the hell away from everyone and everything that says I have to learn faster so I can produce faster so they can have the results faster, because it’s leading straight back to 1.
4. I am a grouchy grouchy bitch when 1, 2, and 3 interact.
5. I finish the project.

Because #5 happened at approximately 3:24 this afternoon, when the handoff meeting wrapped, I can actually think and breathe for the first time in weeks.

What happens now?

Well, tomorrow we play board games.

Saturday, we go to a baseball game.

Sunday I fly to Seattle.

Sometime between Sunday and Thursday I have a thousand new things poured into my ears, resulting in more brain melt. If my expectations are met, I’m also killed in a combination earthquake/tsunami, since it’ll be my first time on the left coast, and I’ll be feet away from the Pacific.

Assuming, as my family keeps doing, that last bit is inaccurate, I’ll then fly home Thursday.

That’s when I get to party with family from Thursday to the following Wednesday. There will likely be even more learning and thinking, but of a wholly different kind than I have experienced in months.

Two weeks from today, I’ll go back to work, a different person than I am right now.

***
My twitter favorites feed is in the thousands again. Time to clean out some links.

Speaking of wrong…

A short but good essay on the recent student loan reform bill that passed.

A great commercial for Axe.

Researchers discover a possible new human group with DNA from a bone — making us more than just Neanderthal and Modern Human.

A school in England is making education easier for teenagers by moving the school day’s start back to 10am. Maaaaan, if I’d had this I’d be brilliant by now.

Fear and Loathing in Farmville is an article written by a game designer who attended the GDC and summarized how “social gaming” is changing game design, in many cases for the worse.

These are very important instructions. They are also a good reason to study math.

Speaking of studying, game design, and long talks, here’s one about using video games to save the world:

…

More as I continue to clean out my Twitter favorites.